Swansea City eyeing Bolton and Barnsley players to replace Matt Grimes | OneFootball

Josh Sheehan, Luca Connell and Hector Kyprianou are on the Swans' radar

Swansea City are reportedly targeting three League One midfielders to replace their outgoing club-captain Matt Grimes, who looks set to end his 10-year spell at the club with a move to fellow Championship side Coventry City soon.

The Swans have been rocked this week by the news that long-serving midfield operator Grimes wants out of the club, but have now accepted a bid from the Sky Blues for his services, and boss Luke Williams has already moved to appoint Ben Cabango as his new skipper, so a move looks imminent prior to the winter window slamming shut.

With Monday's deadline fast approaching, and Coventry making the trip to South Wales for some now hotly-anticipated Championship action tomorrow afternoon, Williams has seemingly identified three third-tier targets that he would like to sign to replace Grimes' services in the middle of the park.

Swansea are eyeing up moves for Josh Sheehan, Luca Connell and Hector Kyprianou

According to a new report from The Express, Swansea have drawn up a three-man shortlist of players to potentially replace Grimes, with Bolton Wanderers' Josh Sheehan, Barnsley man Luca Connell, and Peterborough United's Hector Kyprianou all named as targets heading into a busy final few days of the window.

It is unclear if any of that trio is a particular standout for the Swans, as they are likely to only bring in one of the three, but all of them would be smart signings if they make the move to the Swansea.com Stadium soon.

29-year-old Sheehan will be a name familiar to Swansea supporters, after he broke through their academy set up as a youngster and played one senior game for the club between 2014 and 2018.

He spent time out on loan at Yeovil Town and Newport County while contracted to the Swans, and made a permanent move to the latter in 2018 before going on to join Bolton three years later, where he has been a standout in League One and won their Player of the Season award last campaign.

Connell is a much younger option at 23-years-old, and has also been on Bolton's books, after emerging from their academy before spells at Celtic and Queens Park took him to Oakwell in 2022.

Once again, he has emerged as a key man in the third-tier for his club, and has made 108 appearances for Barnsley over the last two-and-a-half years, while also being named in the 2022/23 League One Team of the Season, then being handed the captain's armband prior to this campaign.

The Express are not the first to link Swansea with a move for Posh enforcer Kyprianou, after Football Insider revealed yesterday that their scouts had been to watch him in midweek, and he is another that has shone in League One over the last few seasons.

Kyprianou started out with Leyton Orient after a spell in Tottenham Hotspur's academy, and he has 122 appearances for Peterborough since a move from Orient in 2022, but is out-of-contract at the end of this term, so could be available on a cut-price deal in this window.

Matt Grimes will be hard for Swansea to replace so quickly

No team wants to lose their best players, particularly midway through a season, and Swansea would not have expected this scenario to play out so quickly with Grimes now set to leave suddenly after spending ten years at the club.

He has built a reputation as one of the Championship's finest operators in the middle of the park over the last few seasons, and while all of the aforementioned targets are good players in their own right, his are big boots to fill and the League One trio all lack vital Championship experience.

Grimes has missed just four league games in the last six full campaigns, so there is no telling how his sudden departure could not only affect performances on the pitch, but also morale in the dressing room, as he has been one of the constants in a tough last seven years for the club.

In terms of his influence on the pitch, FBref's statistical measures have him as one of the most accurate passers in the second-tier, as well as one of the best progressive passers, one of the best at ball recovery, and one of the finest carriers of the ball, when compared to other Championship midfielders this season.

He is clearly going to be tough to replace, and if Swansea do bring in one of Sheehan, Connell or Kyprianou in the coming days, it will certainly be a tough task for the player to replicate his performances and impact on Luke Williams' side.